When does a child start laughing out loud?

The laughter of the baby - lively and sincere - leaves no one indifferent. Babies who have not even learned how to speak laugh especially touchingly. In this article, we will tell you at what age children begin to laugh out loud, how and why this happens or does not happen in a particular case, and also find out if it is possible to teach a baby to laugh.

Terms and norms

It's hard to say when humanity started laughing. Scientists suggest that this happened at a very early stage in the development of civilization. Not only human children can laugh, but also baby monkeys, but only in response to tickling. Human laughter is not always associated with physical impact. This is a psycho-emotional reaction to a variety of life situations.

A newborn child does not know how to laugh, because in order to produce laughter, the muscles of the face must contract in the right way, breathing definitely change, as well as the work of the vocal cords. The only tool for communicating with the world of the newborn is screaming. He shows them his needs and requirements, and until a certain time, this is enough for him.

Yes, babies can smile, but this smile is physiological, involuntary, which speaks not of a positive emotion, but of a spontaneous contraction of facial nerves due to the intensive formation and "debugging" of the nervous system.

The first conscious smile can appear in a baby when he learns to distinguish and recognize the face of his mother, that is, not before the baby learns to focus his gaze on close objects. This usually happens by 2 months and a little later. At about 2-3 months, babies begin to walk. They hear their own voice and at first they are alarmed, but as the emotional sphere develops, the crumbs begin to perceive their own humming as rather funny sounds. It is for the period from 3 to 5 months that the long-awaited development of a new skill falls - the child begins to laugh out loud.

The baby will smile and laugh with sound when he is full, when he is healthy and dry, when he is comfortable and well. At first it will be a quiet and careful laugh, then the baby will grow bolder and start laughing loudly. After six months, children begin to accumulate daytime impressions, and this can be expressed in laughter in a dream. There is no need to be surprised and afraid of this, such laughter is a stage in the formation of the mental and emotional development of the baby.

Numerous parenting questions are bound to be associated with the first laugh out loud. So, quite often mothers note that the child begins to hiccup after laughing. This is quite normal, there is no need to worry, just the respiratory organs are involved in laughter, rhythmic expulsion of air from the lungs occurs. At the same time, a weak children's diaphragm may experience unusual and previously unfamiliar spasms, which will manifest itself as rhythmic hiccups after laughing.

Why isn't the kid laughing?

If the little one has reached the age that is considered optimal for starting laughing, But the parents never hear the long-awaited sounds, there may be several reasons for this.

Lack of preparedness of the nervous system. This means that the baby is not physiologically ready to laugh, his nervous system is not strong enough. Most often this is observed in children who were born premature, low birth weight, with congenital diseases. Their physical and emotional development comes with some quite natural lag. If you surround the child with attention and love and just wait a little, then the baby will surely laugh when "his time" comes.
There is no clear example. If it is not customary in the family to express their emotions with loud and sincere laughter, if the mother rarely smiles, then the child simply has nowhere to learn such a form of expression of feelings as laughter. Children from 2-3 months begin to listen not only to themselves when it comes time to gag and walk, but also to those around them. For them, words do not matter, but emotions, intonations, tone color of an adult's voice are important. When the mother laughs, the child quickly realizes that this is good, and begins to imitate out loud.
Such a character. There are funny children, and there are serious and focused ones. It all depends on the temperament, temperament, congenital characteristics of the baby. If he is a beech and thinker, then it will be incredibly difficult to make him laugh. At the same time, he will develop quite normally both physically and mentally. At best, such a toddler will smile if something delights him.
Nervous system damage, diseases. Lack of laughter can be a sign of emotional immaturity associated with organic brain damage. This sometimes occurs in children who were born after a difficult pregnancy, suffering from hypoxia or from Rh-conflict. Difficult childbirth, cerebral hemorrhage, dropsy of the brain, ischemic changes, neurological disorders can also be the cause. Lack of laughter often accompanies autism and congenital dementia.

The better the emotional and tactile contact between mother and baby is established, the earlier the baby begins to smile and laugh. That is why all refusenik children in Baby Houses look so sad - the lack of communication from the first days of life, the inhibition of the psycho-emotional sphere does not dispose to radiant smiles and open, sincere laughter. Although such children are gradually learning these skills, it is very interesting and informative to discover the world around them.

Laughter as a system of signals and signs

When the baby learns to laugh out loud, he has an additional tool for communicating with the world. Now he has a cry, smiles and laughter, as well as individual vocalization abilities - he ghouls or hums. From this moment on, the mother needs to be extremely careful - the child will use all his new abilities to show exactly what and when he needs.

If the baby reacts with laughter to affectionate words addressed to him or to his mother's song, this indicates an established contact, of timely psycho-emotional development. Laughter for no reason is also completely natural for a child under one year old. A flying feather or a speck of dust does not seem funny to mom, and to a baby who sees them for the first time, they seem very funny.

Laughing in response to your own humming is also the norm. This is how the baby gets the first pre-speech skills and he likes it. Examination of the toy and subsequent bursting laughter is an expression of joy, delight.

Nervous protective laughter, which is characteristic of neurasthenic children, does not appear at the age of one year, like other types of laughter, for example, mocking. It is impossible to diagnose mental illness by the nature, frequency and appropriateness of laughter in a given situation in infancy - it becomes a symptom of certain deviations no earlier than after 3 years.

Can you teach?

If the baby is "beech" from birth and melancholic, it will be problematic to teach him to laugh, but nothing is impossible for a loving mother. Therefore, you need to get down to business. First, analyze for which of the above reasons the baby may not laugh. If they are pathological, associated with neurological disorders, it is worth consulting with a neurologist. Some children are prescribed sedatives, nootropics. In all other situations, everything is in the hands of the mother.

Such games as "Ku-ku" will help to make "not laughing" laugh: the mother covers her face with her hands, and then opens it and says "kook-ku" to the baby with a mandatory smile. Even if at the very beginning the baby will only anxiously peer at the manipulation of the parent, the day will surely come when a familiar movement in combination with a familiar sound will cause a reciprocal smile and laughter.

Toddlers are usually very amused by the moderate vibration. Therefore, you can take the crumbs handles in your own and slightly shake the brushes, and then the feet of the legs. These actions can be accompanied by any funny sounds, for example, "br-r-r-r" or "ta-ta-ta". Do not shake the child too much, this can lead to undesirable consequences - the nervous system of the baby will be overexcited, it will be difficult for him to behave calmly.

From 3 months, babies can distinguish the facial expressions of adults. Learn to make funny faces. This is useful for mom as mimic gymnastics against wrinkles, and it will be amusing for the child to watch. Before showing the little one another face, show it to yourself in the mirror, so as not to accidentally frighten the baby.

Very often, children aged 4-5 months begin to laugh at words that are unfamiliar to them. If you notice that such a word has been found in your vocabulary, and it is of interest to the child, repeat it more often, referring specifically to the child. It will definitely stimulate laughter. The funniest children under one year old see long words, for example, "electrical safety".

Almost all children respond to tickling. Do not tickle the gloomy little one to the point of exhaustion. But a light touch of teeth without pressure to the heel and wrist of the baby, to his tummy with jokes like "Who am I going to eat now?" most often they cause just a laughing response. Exactly the same wonderful property is possessed by the blowing of parts of the child's body with a stream of air from his own lungs.

Take a close look at the entire range of baby toys. Select only bright ones - yellow and red, preferably sounding ones. If they do not please the baby at all and he does not want to laugh, show him a primitive puppet theater with the chosen toy, show how she stomps, what sounds she makes, how she will "eat" it.

Do you need a doctor?

If the child has enough communication, they play and study with him, develop him, but the baby stubbornly does not laugh, the mother should pay attention to the accompanying symptoms. If there are no other complaints, then, most likely, the absence of laughter is a character trait of the baby. Alarming concomitant symptoms include a lack of appetite, general lethargy, decreased tone, pallor or yellowing of the skin, inability and unwillingness to keep the head upright at 5 months, profuse regurgitation, restless sleep, frequent hysterical or monotonous crying.

With such signs, the child must be shown to a pediatric neurologist and pediatrician. It is quite possible that there is no laughter due to severe pathologies, serious diseases that have not been previously diagnosed.

To reassure moms, we note that there are not so many diseases that can manifest themselves in this way, and they are not so common. For the most part, with early diagnosis, they are amenable to treatment and correction, and therefore you should not hesitate with treatment.